Indic Unicode Issues in Windows XP
The following issues with Windows XP's implementation of Indian languages were noticed during Baraha development. They either require fix from Windows XP OR need further clarifications from the respective linguists.
See: Indian language UNICODE support in Windows operating systems.
In the following Kannada examples Windows XP's renderingis incorrect.
correct rendering is as shown in the example below.
In Kannada, the consonant clusters with 'ra' (0CB0) as the first consonant can be written in two methods as shown in the example below.
The method a) uses arkavottu (repha) symbol at the end of the combination. This method is inherited from Sanskrit and is commonly used in the Kannada script.
The method b) - which is the natural way of rendering consonat clusters in Kannada, uses 'ra' consonant followed by the half form(s) of the following consonant(s). In certain cases the method b) is more appropriate than the method a) as shown in example below.
Baraha supports both these methods. But, Windows XP supports only the method a). There is a proposal to render these two forms using ZWJ character as shown in the example below.
In the following Kannada examples Windows XP is incorrectly placing arkavottu after anuswara.
The correct rendering is as shown in the example below.
There is inconsistency in the placement of arkavottu in the following Kannada examples.
The correct rendering is shown in the picture below.
The correct sort order for Tamil script as shown in the example below. As of Baraha 7.0, Baraha uses this sort order for Tamil.
The UNICODE however, has a different sort order for Tamil as shown in the example below.
During implementation of Bengali script, Baraha used the book "Bengali self-taught" by Suniti Kumar Chatterji as a reference. Baraha uses the rule that YA-PHALA is the half form of the consonant 09DF. But, in Windows XP, the YA-PHALA is the half form of the consonant 09AF. Due to this inconsistency when the Baraha document is converted to UNICODE, the output differs as shown in the pictures below. Baraha welcomes feedback from Bengali linguists on this issue.
Baraha rendering:
Windows XP rendering:
Execrpts from "Bengali self-taught" book.
There seems to be a problem in the way Windows XP renders anudatta character. In Baraha, the anudatta(@) has to be used immediately after the consonant/swara to get the result as shown in the picture below.
But, Windows XP renders the samething in Unicode as shown in the picture below.
The different combinations of codes produce the outputs as shown in the picture below by Windows XP.
Though 1) and 3) seem to be the correct code order, there is a problem with 3) that the anudatta symbol is not aligned under the character correctly. I think the correct order is 2) and 4) which the Windows XP has to fix.
The Bengali letters hU and hRu display the same output in Windows XP as shown in the picture below.
The Unicode documents specify that Marathi "eyelash ra" should be obtained as half form of character 0x0931. Baraha follows this convention. However, Windows XP uses half form of 0x0930 to render "eyelash ra". Due to this inconsistency when the Baraha document is converted to UNICODE, the output differs as shown in the pictures below
Baraha rendering:
Windows XP rendering:
The Kannada extended characters using Nukta(0x0CBC) are not implemented in Windows XP. Due to this deficiency when the Baraha document is converted to UNICODE, incorrect output is displayed as shown in the pictures below
Baraha rendering:
Windows XP rendering:
The Devanagari letter CHANDRA E (0x090d) is represented differently in Marathi compared to Hindi. In Windows XP, Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit languages all share the common font "Mangal" and hence this distinction is not possible. The current rendering of CHANDRA E by Mangal font is correct for Hindi but not acceptable for Marathi.
Correct rendering as in Baraha:
Incorrect rendering in Windows XP:
